


some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this

by ashleygail



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Homophobic Slurs, M/M, Minor Violence, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 09:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14638827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleygail/pseuds/ashleygail
Summary: Eddie giggled, cheeks heating up. “Hey, you can’t control your moments, Trashmouth. I think all of mine were stupid shit of you being an absolute idiot.”“Well, that’s all the time then,” Richie said, trying to keep up with the banter but his mind was already wandering to his what his moments could be.or richie's moments of realization and love





	some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this

“You know, my Ma once told me something really interesting,” Eddie Kaspbrak said, head resting against his boyfriend’s chest. Eddie fiddled with Richie’s fingers that were entangled with his own and a small smile kept tugging at Richie’s lips. “About love.”

“Really?” Richie asked, trying to keep the surprise out of his tone. Sonia Kaspbrak wasn’t the easiest conversation in the world to have with Eddie, who was often spilt with how he feels about his mother and it was hard to determine how he react to whatever you said. Except with sexual jokes. Those always prompted a “beep beep richie! jesus!”

“Yeah, it was when my dad was sick,” Eddie said gently. “She was talking about how there’s all these moments when it comes to love, you know? Like, the moment you think you might love them, the moment you think you might know you love them, the moment you know you love them but can’t say it yet, and the moment you know you love them and just can’t keep it to yourself anymore.”

Richie smiled to himself and pressed a kiss to the top of Eddie’s head before he burst out laughing. “Wait, wait, are you saying that the moment you couldn’t keep in the fact that you were in love with me was when I fucking tripped over my own boxers and landed on my face in the dark?”

Eddie giggled, cheeks heating up. “Hey, you can’t control your moments, Trashmouth. I think all of mine were stupid shit of you being an absolute idiot.”

“Well, that’s all the time then,” Richie said, trying to keep up with the banter but his mind was already wandering to his what his moments could be.

**the moment you think you might love them**

When Richie Tozier was eleven years old, he almost got murdered. Well, no, Richie supposed that might be an exaggeration but at the time Richie had truly been convinced he wasn’t going to survive this particular run in with Henry Bowers.

Did that stop him from running his damn mouth? No, nothing could ever do that.

“Come on, Bowers, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Richie shouted over his shoulder as he ran down main street with the most speed he could muster up pre-growth spurt legs. “Or does just your dad get special mouth treatment?”

Richie honestly hadn’t seen Patrick coming, until he felt himself being tackled to the ground and the wind was knocked out of him. Richie wheezed and tried to roll away, but Patrick was bigger and stronger and Richie pinned.

“Trashmouth is really the perfect nickname for you, isn’t it, Tozier?” Patrick reeked out some sort of alcohol that poor young Richie couldn’t recognize at eleven years old. Richie struggled against him, the heat of Patrick’s breath of his cheek making his stomach churn. “Maybe we should cut that little trash tongue right out of your trashmouth? Think that would solve a lot of problems for you, wouldn’t it?”

Richie tried to answer with anything- a plead to stop, a snarky remark but Patrick’s comment had made his tongue heavy and throat tight with anxiety. Richie kicked his feet frantically with no avail before he felt something…. hard pressing against his thigh.

No… no, no. That couldn’t be… This couldn’t possibly be happening right now. This couldn’t be happening  _ever._

“No…” Richie whined, wiggling to free himself but merely causing Patrick to let out a low, whispered moan and leer at him with a stronger wolfish grin. Richie swallowed back a sob.

“What do you say, Hen?” Patrick asked. “Chop out the fucking thing and mount it as trophy in your living room?”

“Sounds like exactly what the little fucker deserves.” Henry’s voice carried over to Richie and Richie didn’t have the chance to wonder why Henry was letting Patrick take the lead when a glint of metal being struck by the sunlight made Richie’s brain fuzz out with panic.

Richie hadn’t seen Eddie coming, either, but even in his shut down panic striken stake, he couldn’t miss the high pitched scream of “GET AWAY FROM HIM!” followed by Henry shouting out in surprise. Patrick’s grip loosened, and it was only for a second, but Richie’s survival instincts were on high rise and he slipped through.

Yes, Richie should have run like hell. Should’ve run and never looked back but he couldn’t leave Eddie- couldn’t leave his  _saviour_ behind to be beaten to a pulp. Richie stumbled to his feet and looked up to see- to his utter shock- that Eddie had launched himself on Henry’s back. Henry stumbled slightly and tossed Eddie to the ground.

“Fucking  _spider money,_ goddamn!” Henry shouted once he’d successfully gotten a groaning Eddie to the ground. Henry leg swung out and kicked at Eddie’s rib cage, and Eddie gasped out loudly. Richie watched Eddie curl into himself, and saw red.

“Leave him alone!” Richie went to throw himself at Henry, but felt Patrick’s arms come around his waist and hoist him away. “GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME! EDDIE!”

“Don’t worry, Tozier,” Henry told him with a cocky smirk. “I won’t hurt your boyfriend too bad. I’m not interested in him.”

“Kaspbrak isn’t my boyfriend,” Richie said in a tone he  _knew_ was too cocky for the position he was currently in but it wasn’t like he could help it. “If you’re not interested in him, I can make it worth your while.”

Henry’s face turned stark white before burning a bright red. “I- I don’t-  _You fucking faggot!”_ A fist connected with Richie’s face so many times, Richie lost count after six strikes. He quickly numbed out that pain, focusing on the sound of his crunching glasses and Eddie’s cries of his name.

Soon enough it was over, and Richie was tossed to the ground. Richie whipped blood from his mouth and nose as Patrick and Henry both threw warnings at him as they walked away, but his attention was on Eddie as he crawled across the dirty ground towards him.

“You idiot, why didn’t you run away?” Eddie asked, short of breath but the way the sun shone down on his freckles made Richie smile through the spilt lip.

“I could never leave you behind.”

**the moment you think you know you love them**

A thirteen year old Richie tugged his sweater closer to himself, standing out on the balcony in Washington that he was supposed to be sharing with Bill Denbrough and had been locked out of. It was already at least -10 outside and dropping quickly, and Richie was standing out in with merely a zip-up hoodie and jeans.

He pulled the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands and blew hot air from his mouth onto them. He leaned up against the door he’d been angrily knocking on for an hour to no response. Bill slept with fucking headphones in like a fucking noob, and now Richie was going to freeze to death outside their hotel room door because of it.

“Worst fucking best friend ever,” Richie mumbled to himself, kicking his foot against the door and groaning. He should have known better than to agree to meet Beverly for a smoke at 1 am. Eddie had always told him that smoking would kill him, but he hadn’t thought it was be so sudden and unexpected as this.

“What are you doing?” A voice- a beautiful, high pitched but starting crack- voice rang out to him and Richie’s entire heart did a black flip. Eddie Kaspbrak was standing in front of him, dressed from head to toe in full on winter gear. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Why its’ a my spaghetti!!” Richie cheered, flumping with his frozen toes to dance over and toss his arms around Eddie’s middle and hoist him to his feet. “Here to save me, he is, he sure is, always saving my stupid ass.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and tapped on Richie’s shoulder to be put down. “What on  _Earth_ are you talking about?”

“I went to smoke with Bev and Bill locked me out and I’m going to freeze  _to death_ ,” Richie widened his eyes behind his glasses. “But here you are, to save me.”

“I was just going to get more ice for my room,” Eddie rolled his eyes but there was distinct heat in his cheeks that Richie found himself grinning at.

“At 2 in the morning?” Richie challenged and Eddie was definitely blushing now.

“Okay, asshole, I’ve been listening to you knock for the last like, hour, and decided not to let you die but if you’d rather freeze out here all night-“ Eddie threw his hands up in the air and moved to walk away but Richie dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Eddie’s thigh. His face pressed into them and he chose to ignore the way his stomach jumped at the feeling.

“No, no, my knight in shining wool, you cannot leave me to die slowly and painfully, please, I beg of you.” Richie fake sobbed in Eddie’s thighs and he felt his friend sigh above him.

“Get up you stupid, dumb, idiot, asshole,” Eddie groaned, pushing at the top of Richie’s head until the other boy pulled away. “Or I really will leave you out here to freeze like Jack Nicholson in  _The Shining.”_

“He didn’t freeze to death in the book,” Richie said. “The hotel actually-“

“Shut up,” Eddie said, laughing as he helped Richie to his feet.

The agreement to Eddie even coming on this trip was his mother’s insistence that he got a single room so one bed sat in the room and Richie’s palms were sweating as he slipped out his jeans and into bed with Eddie. The stayed stiff and face away from each other until exhaustion took over and they both drifted off to sleep.

When Richie woke up with an arm full of Kaspbrak and a racing heart, he decided that was a problem for  _Later Richie._

**the moment you know you love them but you’re not ready to say it yet**

_Later Richie_ came into occurrence at the rip age of sixteen. He was more than just slightly intoxicated and definitely standing way too close to the edge of the quarry cliff.

“Come on, Tozier,” Stan called out to him, clearly trying to cover up his sober concern with distaste and disappointment. “You’ll fucking kill yourself, I’m serious. Get back here.”

“No, you’re not my mother, Staniel!” Richie slightly slurred. He hadn’t  _really_ had that much to drink but he was still a scrawny teenage boy with no alcohol tolerance to dream of. A beer and a half and Richie Tozier was sloshed. Eddie stepped closer and shook his head.

“Richie…. Rich, come ‘ere.” Maybe Eddie wasn’t exactly sober either. Maybe since Eddie came out to his mother, he’d been doing more and more things to rebel against her and the hold of him. And maybe Richie loved that so much it made him smile at the ground and his cheeks get warm.

“Eds… Eddie… Ed Edd and Eddy,” Richie giggled. “Come stand at the end of the Earth with me.”

“No!” Stan called out, actually cupping his hands around his mouth like a microphone. “Don’t do that! Kaspbrak! Get back here!”

Richie swings back around to look towards the dark night and still water. Because maybe looking at Eddie hurts a little bit, makes his chest a little tight and his world a little more complicated than he wanted on this perfect autumn night.

“It’s beautiful,” Eddie said softly. Richie bit down on his lip to avoid the millions of clichés and sonets about how beautiful Eddie was with his soft hair and doey eyes and freckled nose. What tumbled out of his mouth was- surprisingly- a;

“Not as beautiful as your mom’s ass.”

Eddie shoved at Richie on the reflex and Richie wasn’t able to catch back onto his footing. Richie felt himself slip off the edge of cliff and start his descent to the water below. He heard Eddie’s “shit! Rich!” and what sounded like Stan shouting out expletives in a rage as he went.

When Richie surfaced, he found Eddie coming up to break water beside him. Richie laughed. “Hey, fancy meeting you down here.” Eddie giggled as wet curls dropped into his eyes. Richie’s breathing hitched. “Why did you jump?”

“I wasn’t going to let you die by yourself now, was I?” Eddie rolled his eyes and Richie’s entire chest clenched. Unable to refuse himself this moment, he swam a little closer and pressed his lips to Eddie’s damp cheek. When he moved away again, he found himself staring at an equally confused and surprised Eddie. They held the eye contact for a long moment, before Richie cleared his throat.

“Stan’s probably freaking the fuck out up there, we should-“

“Yeah, yeah, we should.”

As they swam from the water back towards the shore, Richie wondered on how he was absolutely and totally fucked for Eddie Kaspbrak.

**the moment you know you love them and you can’t keep it to yourself anymore**

He and Eddie had been together for a few months now and things had made the transition easily. Not that much was all that different honestly, their friends had been surprised when the two of them had told them they were a couple.

“I’ve thought you were dating for years,” Ben had said with wide eyes. He glanced around as though waiting for somebody to tell it was stupid to believe that. Nobody did aside from Stan’s expected eye roll.

“I knew they weren’t dating.” He said. “They were way too stupid. Congratulations.” 

They transitioned from friends to lovers easily until it came to their first fight. Richie had come stumbling into Chem II with a cut lip and quickly bruising lip. Eddie had stared daggers at him and refused to speak to him the entire class. Richie had chased after his boyfriend after class, confusion and fear settling into his chest.

“What’s wrong with you?” Richie had pleaded. Eddie had spun around and his angry frown was enough to make Richie take a few steps back.

“Are you ever going to fucking take care of yourself?” Eddie demanded, shaking his head. “Richie, fuck. I don’t… I don’t want you getting into stupid ass fights and getting hurt. You’re going to get yourself killed, okay? If you’re going…”

Eddie shook his head and swallowed hard. Richie’s heart raced and his stomach was in knots.

“You’re just going to keep getting in stupid fights and doing all this shit then we should just break up right now,” Eddie finished with a strong fierceness in his voice that almost made Richie dry heave. “Because I can’t handle worrying about you every second of the day, wondering if you’re laying dead in a ditch because you talked back to Bowers or-”

“Eds, Eds, baby,  _no.”_ Richie grabbed Eddie’s hands and pulled him closer to him. “It wasn’t like that, okay, it wasn’t, it…. There were guys in the locker room talking about you. I  _have_ been trying to keep my mouth in check,  _I have,_ but it’s like… i couldn’t listen to what they were saying about you, I couldn’t do nothing, I-”

And he looked at his boyfriend then and the buzzing in his chest reached his head. Eddie’s tearful, hopeful gaze and trembling bottom lip and his fucking freckled nose.

“Because  _I love you, Eddie Kaspbrak.”_ Richie said with a fierceness that matched Eddie’s tone from earlier. “And I will never let people talk about you that way and just take it. I can watch my mouth and keep my head down any other time but I won’t when it comes to you, okay? And if you still want to break up then that really fucking sucks but I understand.”

“I don’t ever want to break up.” Eddie whispered tearfully before launching forward and smashing his lips against Richie’s, right there in the middle of the crowded school hallway. Neither of them could find it in themselves to give a single fuck about who could see 


End file.
